Jack
Johnson |
Joe
Louis |
Boxing was
one of the few integrated sports in the United States, and prize fighters Jack
Johnson and Joe Louis paved the way for black athletes everywhere. They
were soon accepted by white Americans after a long, hard struggle.
Jack Johnson
Arthur John (Jack) Johnson (1878 -1946) was the first black, and first Texan, to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.Born in Galveston on March 31, 1878, he was the second of six children of Henry and Tiny Johnson. Henry was a former slave and his family was poor. After leaving school in the fifth grade, Johnson worked odd jobs around South Texas. He started boxing as a sparring partner and fought in the "battles royal," matches in which young blacks entertained white spectators who threw money to the winner.
Johnson turned professional
in 1897 following a period with private clubs in Galveston. His family's home
was destroyed by the great hurricane of 1900. A year later he was arrested and
jailed because boxing was a criminal profession in Texas. He soon left Galveston
for good.
Johnson first became the
heavyweight champion of Negro boxing. Jim Jeffries, the white champ at the time,
refused to fight Johnson because he was black. Then, in 1908, Johnson knocked
out Tommy Burns in Australia to become world champion, although he was not officially
given the title until 1910 when he finally fought and beat Jeffries in Las Vegas.
Jeffries had come out of retirement to become the first of many so-called "great
white hopes."
Race rioting was sparked
after the Johnson-Jeffries fight. The Texas Legislature banned films of his
victories over whites for fear of more riots. In 1913, Johnson fled because
of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting
white women across state lines for prostitution.
During his exile from the
U.S., Johnson lost his championship to a white man, Jess Willard, in Cuba in
1915. He returned to the U.S. on July 20, 1920 and was arrested. Sentenced to
Leavenworth in Kansas, Johnson was appointed athletic director of the prison.
Upon his release, he returned to boxing, but only participated in exhibition
fights after 1928. Although
married three times to white women, Johnson never had children. He died in a
car crash June 10, 1946, near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Joe Louis Barrow was born on May 13, 1914. His father was a cotton picker from Alabama and his family fought with poverty for most of his childhood. His family moved to Detroit in 1924, at which point Joe first became involved in boxing. Having grown up in the Old South, Louis had acquired the instinct and anger of a true fighter, even amidst the evils of racial discrimination and intolerance. His early career was a period of hard work and determination, and was one without glamour or fame.
Joe Louis still
holds the distinction of having successfully defended his title more times than
any other heavyweight in history. He knocked out five world champions and will
remain a powerful part of boxing history for many decades to come. His life
and success story serve as proof that black and white Americans can coexist.
Joe Louis is a role model for all of us and proved that good sportsmanship can
exist even in a sport as violent as boxing. When he died in 1981, Joe Louis
was eulogized - and continues to be known - as one of the greatest prizefighters
of all time.
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